Unraveling the cosmos' secrets,
one brown woman's mission as

Software Engineer

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about me

I am a professional Software Engineer/Developer.

I am a highly skilled and passionate Software Engineer & Developer with expertise in leading teams and specialising in Python and C++. In Python, I have extensive experience in developing robust and scalable applications with libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Scipy, astropy, dash, bokeh etc. In C++ (11, 17, 20), I have honed my skills in developing high-performance applications and systems. I have worked on projects ranging from embedded systems to large-scale software solutions. My expertise includes working with data structures, algorithms, and optimisation techniques to deliver efficient and reliable code.

Embarking on my journey towards excellence, fearlessly embraces the pursuit of knowledge, surpassing traditional boundaries, and proving that remarkable achievements can be attained even without a PhD. My research focuses on using a combination of astronomy, statistics, and computer science to understand the nature of dark matter. I have been using weak lensing and morphological information of the galaxies to get the cosmic shear measurements, halo mass and the inner dark matter density profile. This often involves working with massive datasets from wide-field imaging and spectroscopic surveys containing observations ranging from billions of stars and galaxies to interstellar gas and dust. I make extensive use of Bayesian inference methods, in order to fit complex models to a broad range of observations.

For more: Check out my Research page for additional details on some of the things I work on!

email

Experience

  1. June 2010 - July 2010

    1. Worked on asp.net for developing websites.

  2. July 2011 - August 2012

    1. Design, develop and implement the system requirement keeping limitations & dependencies across the modules in mind.
    2. Maintain, validate code and software standards.

  3. January 2013 - July 2016

    1. Worked on Design, development, installation and testing of the client-specific applications.
    2. Performed research and development to enhance the utility of applications for existing clients.
    3. Provided hands-on workshops to students from universities & Prepared user and self-training manuals for clients.

  4. July 2017 - August 2017

    1. Worked on Sentinel Satellite and Demise Observation Capsule (DOC) Proto-Flight Model under the FLPP-3 program.
    2. Sentinel Satellite: Worked on ground station code refinement, optimise, maintenance and validation of the ground segment code.
    3. DOC: The general objective of DOC was to prepare the technical and programmatic elements to enable an efficient launcher design where I was responsible for DOC graphical user interface.

  5. April 2018 - August 2018

    1. Worked on NISP (Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer) instrument simulator of the ESA Euclid mission.
    2. Modelled and Simulated Solar System Objects in simulator Imagem.
    3. Performed Photometry and Astrometry to find out Flux distribution and detect moving objects respectively.
    4. Report: KANSAL, V. (2018). Simulation of Solar System Objects for the NISP instrument of the ESA Euclid Mission (Dissertation). Retrieved from Here

  6. November 2018 - November 2021

    1. Implementation lead for 2D Mass Weak Lensing Processing Function of the ESA Euclid mission.
    2. Verification and Validation for 2D Mass Weak Lensing Processing Function.
    3. In-charge of development and integration of pipelines and Data Model in Organization Unit Level 3.
    4. Lead the project and/or other Engineers involved with the development and implementation.
    5. Worked on other processing functions and pipeline such as Photometric Visibility Mask.
    6. Reviewed code and Data Model for the other processing functions.
    7. Participated in the development of Euclid libraries and Data Model tools & Bindings.

Education

  • 2017 - 2018

    Master of Science

    Space Technology and Instrumentation (M2)

    Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier

    Toulouse, France

    Worked on Balloon project: Project concerns the measurement of physical
    characteristics of the Stratosphere, the flight environment, data acquisition,
    and the transmission of simple signals and transmission losses in the atmo-
    sphere and finally the exploitation of these data.

  • 2016 - 2018

    Master of Science

    Space Technology

    Luleå University of Technology

    Kiruna, Sweden

    1. Monitored and predicted the space weather i.e., conditions on sun & in the
    solar wind, Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere thermosphere that causes
    Auroras and can influence the performance and reliability of space/ground
    based technological system and endanger human life.

    2. Analysed EISCAT ESR radar data, Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)
    satellite, Cluster satellites and Rosetta data to work on statistics of solar wind
    velocity, proton density & magnetic-field components and to find out the expected
    energy per charge solar wind components/species.

    3. Implementation & Design of a floating satellite with a mission of shooting
    Asteroids with accuracy controlled by ground station. I was responsible to
    the develop the Electronics of the satellite, GUI for ground station and telemetry
    & tele-command with satellite using ground station. ( )

  • 2013 - 2015

    Master of Technology

    Automation & Robotics

    Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University

    Ghaziabad, India

    1. Developed a wireless interface to control an arm using gesture of human being
    which can be operated through a range of 10 to 90 meters.

    2. Worked on Pneumatics & Hydraulics systems and PLCs with BOSCH Rexorth
    and simulated the Pneumatics & Hydraulics designs with different PLCs in Automa-
    tion Studio (Famic Technologies).

    3. Worked on KUKA Industrial robot control systems.

    4. Programmed and documented the robust LabVIEW applications.

    5. Thesis: Kansal, V. and Kansal, A.K., 2015. Wireless Gesture Driven Artificial Arm.
    ADVANCES IN MECHANICAL, AUTOMOBILE AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING,
    p.37


  • 2012 - 2013

    Master of Business Administration

    Information Technology

    Sikkim Manipal University Distance Education

    India

    Selected Coursework: Business Communication, Statistics for Management,
    Research methodology, Project Management

  • 2007 - 2011

    Bachelor’s in Technology

    Computer Science & Engineering

    Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University

    Ghaziabad, India

    Selected Coursework: Numerical & Statistical Techniques, Data Structure,
    Database management, Operating systems, Computer networks, Design & Analysis
    of Algorithms, Principle of Programming Languages, Digital Image processing,
    Distributed Systems, Artificial Intelligence

skills

Nurturing My Skills: A Journey of Endless Growth

research


UNDER CONSTRUCTION

SUCCESSFUL COMPLETED PROPOSALS


1. Precision galaxy-galaxy weak lensing at 10-100 kpc scales (awarded time on the AAT Telescope) | Semester B 2024 (19 nights)
2. Precision galaxy-galaxy weak lensing at 10-100 kpc scales (awarded time on the AAT Telescope) | Semester A 2024 (22 nights)
3. Dynamics, Dark Matter, and Precision Weak Lensing (awarded time on the AAT Telescope) | September 2023 (6 nights)
4. Dynamics, Dark Matter, and Precision Weak Lensing (awarded time on the ANU 2.3 Telescope) | February 2023 (6 nights)
5. The Stellar-to-Halo Mass relation with Precision Weak Lensing (awarded time on the Keck II Telescope, Semester 2022B) | October 2022 (1 night)
6. Dynamics, Dark Matter, and Precision Weak Lensing (awarded time on the ANU 2.3 Telescope) | September 2022 (6 nights)
7. Better Weak Lensing through Integral Field Spectroscopy (awarded time on the ANU 2.3 Telescope) | May 2022 (4 nights)


ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS


1. January 2025 (6 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [12k AUD]
     Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA
2. August 2024 (8 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [16k AUD]
     Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA
3. July 2024 (10 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [20k AUD]
     Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA
4. June 2024 (2 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [4k AUD]
     Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA
5. May 2024 (3 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [6k AUD]
     Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA
6. April 2024 (3 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [6k AUD]
     Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA

 7. March 2024 (4 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [8k AUD]
     Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA

 8. January 2024 (3 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [SUPPORT]
    Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA
9. September 2023 (6 night) | Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), Australia [12k AUD]
    Instrument: Anglo-Australian 4m Telescope (AAT) with AAOmega + KOALA
10. February 2023 (6 night) | Siding Spring Observatory, Australia [11k AUD]
    Instrument: ANU 2.3m Telescope with Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS)
11. October 2022 (1 night) | W. M. Keck Observatory, Hawaii [150k USD]
    Instrument: 10m Telescope with Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS)
12. September 2022 (6 nights) | Siding Spring Observatory, Australia [11k AUD]
    Instrument: ANU 2.3m Telescope with Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS)
13. May 2022 (4 nights) | Siding Spring Observatory, Australia [8k AUD]
    Instrument: ANU 2.3m Telescope with Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS)


ENGINEERING COMMISSIONING NIGHTS


1. November 2023 (6 night) | W. M. Keck Observatory, Hawaii
    Instrument: NIRC2 Keck adaptive optics system
2. October 2023 (3 night) | W. M. Keck Observatory, Hawaii
    Instrument: NIRC2 Keck adaptive optics system


INVITED TALKS & LECTURES


1. Talk on “Navigating Fellowships: How PhD Students Can Apply for Fellowships” at Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia (September 30, 2024).
2. Talk on “Precision Weak lensing: Unveiling New Frontiers in Dark Matter Distribution” at Keck Science Meeting, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States (September 12-13, 2024).
3. Sparkler on “Investigating the Dark Matter Halos of Galaxies through Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing” at Astronomical Society of Australia, Annual Science Meeting, Australia (June 24-28, 2024).
4. Contributed talk on “Galaxy-galaxy lensing: Probing Dark Matter Surrounding Galaxies” at ACAMAR 10, Guangzhou, China (May 13-15, 2024).
5. Talk on “Advanced Software Solutions for High-Contrast Imaging” at W. M. Keck Observatory HQ, Hawaii, USA (November 1, 2023).
6. Lecture on "Data Modelling and Bindings” in Euclid Developer’s workshop 7 (Virtually, October 5-8, 2020).
7. Lectures on "C++ programming language” during Euclid Language workshop (~6h) at IAP, Paris, France (November 12-19, 2019).
8. Talk on "Euclid Development Environment” in Euclid Developer’s workshop 6 at ESAC/ESA, Spain (October 15-18, 2019).
9. Talk on “Wireless gesture driven robotic arm” in National conference on “Advances in Mechanical, Automobile & Production Engineering (AMAPE-2015)” at Skyline Institute of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida, India (October 19-20, 2015).
10. Lectures on “Design and Simulation of Pneumatics & Hydraulics systems and PLCs” (~8h) at AKGEC, Ghaziabad, India (2013-14).


FUNDS


1. Travel grant from Swinburne University of Technology & ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics [15K AUD], 2024.
2. Travel grant from W. M. Keck Observatory [30K USD], 2023.
3. Research Fellowship from Swinburne University of Technology [140K AUD], 2023.
4. Research Grant from ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics [100K AUD], 2022.
5. Observational grant from the joint arrangement between Swinburne and Caltech [150K USD], 2022
6. Erasmus+ Travel grant [1yr; 6k €], 2017-2018


HONORS AND PRIZES


1. Won a "Meta Quest VR Headset" at Astronomical Society of Australia, Annual Science Meeting 2024.
2. Winning Team member of "BUILD YOUR OWN DETECTOR" at ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics Annual workshop, 2023.
3. Judged the Indian Robot Olympiad (IRO) in Regular category for National Final Competition, 2013.
4. Judged the Indian Robot Olympiad (IRO) in Regular category for Delhi-NCR Regional Competition, 2013.
5. Winning Team member of VOGUE during Thomso’07 held at IIT, ROORKEE.
6. Won several awards for Sketching at regional level, India.